When I got the opportunity to fill a UW-Bothell display case with materials relating to educational music, I knew I would need some artistic help … so I enlisted my 8-year-old son.

We were both pleased with the end product, and had fun creating it together. It wasn’t just fun, though; it felt like a genuine collaboration. Phil asked LOTS of pertinent questions about my preferences; for example, “Should each student have their own desk, or should they share big desks?” Moreover, he demonstrated genuine technical skill. That speaker next to the singing teacher is his design, as is the computer on the teacher’s desk (hard to see, but elegantly simple) and the Lego-font N’s (which replaced my inferior ones).

Can you write a song that inspires others to #makethefuture better? If so, you could win $15,000!

Shell challenges musicians to write an original song using creativity, talent and the unique Sounds of Energy to help inspire others to reach their full potential and make a difference.

At Shell, we’re inspired by what is possible through creative and innovative people working together to make the future better. That’s why we’re celebrating them with the first ever Shell Make the Future Music Contest.

Submit your song in your profile between March 3, 2015 and May 15, 2015

Let the public vote your song to the top 10! Share your song with the public via Facebook and Twitter, May 4 – May 29, 2015

This Special Issue in Journal of Mathematics Education explores the affordances and constraints of employing music as a context for mathematics education, especially in the K-12 grades. We welcome articles that provide diverse perspectives on utilizing music and music-themed activities within any facet of K-12 mathematics instruction, preservice teacher education, or inservice teacher professional development. The Special Issue will primarily highlight empirical articles, although innovative theory or practice-based articles will be considered as well.

Extended abstracts (of up to 500 words, not including references) should be sent electronically (as a Word document) to: Song An at saan@utep.edu as well as copied to Daniel Tillman at datillman@utep.edu by June 1, 2015. Accepted abstracts will be notified by July 1, 2015, and full papers will be due by September 1, 2015. The Special Issue is scheduled to be published in December 2015. Please see full version of this Call for Papers at educationforatoz.com.

Many science songs posted to YouTube (and other sites) don’t come with lyrics in text format, which renders these songs all but invisible to users of our database. Unless someone searches for a keyword that is in the song’s title, or searches for the specific artist who did the song, the song remains undiscovered.

I just noticed that YouTube now offers auto-transcription of many videos. Could this help us harvest previously unavailable lyrics?

Well … yes and no. YouTube does attempt to auto-transcribe lyrics from some music videos. However, its interpretations of those lyrics are reminiscent of the autocompletion guesses of a so-called “smartphone.”

As an example, let’s take Glenn Wolkenfeld’s Electron Transport Chain song, released last month. Here are the first two verses, according to Glenn.

Welcome to this story about cell energy The goal is explaining how cells make ATP It happens in the mitochondria which you can think of As the cell’s energy factory

Mitochondria are double-membraned organelles,
An inner membrane and an outer one as well
The mitochondrial matrix is the fluid inside
It’s where reactions like Krebs cycle reside

And here they are according to YouTube’s auto-transcription.

welcome to the story about self-energy called with explaining how cells make ATP it happens in the bayou country which pick it as a self going to back to work

by the country are couple members organelles any demand plane however one as well the mitochondrial matrix is the food insidethree reactors like Rip Micheals

I love that ATP production is said to occur “in the Bayou country.” It’s also interesting that comedian/actor Rip Micheals is involved somehow.

On Tuesday evening my son Phil and I headed to the University branch of the Seattle Public Library for “Sing a Song of Science” with veteran children’s musician Nancy Stewart. Most of the kids there were very young — at 7, Phil might have been the elder statesman of the bunch — and he initially lingered by the stairs rather than joining the others. But after he answered one of Nancy’s first questions and she recruited him to hold up a picture of the sun for her solar system song, he was in. Before long, he was wiggling and dancing on cue.

Nancy’s show was filled with questions and puzzles. Her backdrop included a box for each letter of the word S-C-I-E-N-C-E, and inside each box was another word beginning with that same letter. Most were straightforward, but the second “C” turned out to stand for Cephalopod, a nice curveball reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. Also reminiscent of TMBG was her skillful reinforcement of her lyrics with musical elements. For instance, a song about a pulley had a melody that climbed up the scale as the pulley rose upward.

Nancy asked us to complete the sentence, “Science is …” Phil shouted, “Surprising!” I offered, “Rigorous!” Which isn’t a bad two-word summary of the joys of science. If you do something rigorously, the surprises are more interesting (to me, anyway) because they are more likely to be “real.”

Toward the end, Nancy introduced a fanciful dinosaur counting song with the words, “Dinosaurs are not around anymore, but if they were, I think they’d want to drive cars.”

By the way, several of Nancy’s science songs are available online through her website, NancyMusic.com. A search of the SingAboutScience.org database reveals that some even come with online sheet music! (Note the “score” buttons in the Links column of the search results page.)

[Keaton Wilson] is a member of The Whizpops, a children’s band that focuses on elementary education and science curriculum as the basis of their lyrics. One of his favorite songs on their new ocean-themed album is “Dolphin Disco.” The founders of the band, Casey Schaefer and Kevin Cashman, are elementary school teachers. The song-writing duties fall on them, but they often run lyrics by Wilson to ensure scientific accuracy.

The former cheerleader and Miss Bethune-Cookman University started developing the math and reading programs — including software and videos being used in classrooms at other Volusia schools and across the country — 10 years ago while teaching fifth grade in Broward County. Frustrated when her students had trouble grasping the concept of division, Pasley-Henry tried creating songs and dance moves to capture the children’s attention and help them remember the math rules to follow.

Ethan Perlstein: “…I think every seminal paper in the history of science should be immortalized and popularized in rap form. Someone needs to call Kanye’s or Eminem’s agents and see if they’re interested in bringing science to the masses. There are lots of papers to go around!”

“We know that the students like technology, they like music, right? So you put those both together and the students are learning,” said Lolita Jackson, principal of KIPP Bridge.

“There’s such a dramatic difference when you can create something like this, that’s really professional, that makes an impact,” McFadden said. “That students get to see themselves as part of the fabric of culture and of the Internet and of education and creators. That has a big impact on anybody, especially students.”

Another anecdote supporting the idea that the number of educators teaching science through music is larger than anyone realizes: This spring I was forwarded an email advertising a talk by about educational science songs … to be given at the University of Washington … by a UW professor who wasn’t me, and whom I had never heard of before.

To make a long story short and then long again, I went to the talk, which was great, and then conducted the interview below. (Photo of Dargan Frierson by UW College of the Environment.)

Sing About Science & Math: Tell us about Atmospheric Science 111 at the University of Washington, the course in which you sing regularly to students.

Dargan Frierson: ATM S 111: Global Warming is a survey class about the science of climate change. It’s a large lecture (240 students) with two hour meetings, so anything I can do to break up the lecture and keep everybody awake helps. I sing at least a song a week, sometimes two, on topics ranging from climate feedbacks (to the tune of “Get Back” by the Beatles) and ocean acidification (to the tune of “Californication” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers), to green roofs (“Paint it White” to the tune of “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones) and living a carbon neutral lifestyle (“Carbon Zero” to the tune of “Zero” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

SAS&M: You write original music as well, but for this class you mostly sing parodies of popular songs. Why?

DF: I think the concepts are more easily remembered when it’s part of a melody that people know. So for the students’ learning, I think parodies are better.

SAS&M: Your parodies tend to be of “classic rock” songs. Do today’s undergraduates seem to like these oldies, or do they groan with dismay (or shrug with ignorance) when you launch into a David Bowie tune? Do you feel any temptation to parody current artists in order to connect with students better?

DF: The students seem to know most of the old songs pretty well. Some have said that their parents played these tunes while they were growing up, so they know them pretty well. I can’t help doing a deep cut every once in a while though — like “Man Who Sold the World” by Bowie (which I learned from the Nirvana Unplugged album) or “Rain” by the Beatles.

Every once in a while I’ll do a newer song, but it has to be something I really like. I would love to do some rap (I even half-wrote a parody of Kanye West’s “Power” about the electricity grid), but unfortunately my rapping skills are neither funky nor fresh…

SAS&M: What do you consider your best atmospheric science song, and why do you consider it the best one?

DF: I’d say my best is “Albedo” written to the tune of “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson 5. It’s simple, and gets across the concept of albedo in a fun way. Songs where the hook is the scientific term you want them to remember = great for education.

SAS&M: Have you made any attempts to quantify the educational impact of your songs?

DF: I haven’t done too much in terms of quantifying the impact, but I have some good evidence about the Albedo song. The first year I taught this class I didn’t sing the song and about 70% of the students got the albedo question right on the test. The second year, after I had sung the song, over 95% of the students got it right!

I also surveyed the class this year on whether they learned from the songs, and 75% said they did learn substantially from them, beyond just enjoying them.

SAS&M: Your department, Atmospheric Sciences, has a holiday party that includes live musical and quasi-musical performances. Have your classroom songs, and students’ positive reactions, inspired other UW atmospheric science faculty to try singing to their own students? Have any colleagues reported whining along the lines of, “Why can’t YOU sing to us the way Prof. Frierson does?”

DF: Actually the parody songwriting in our department predates me! Profs. Mike Wallace and Dennis Hartmann were writing songs for our departmental winter party years before I got there, and their songs really inspired me to take it up myself. I sing songs written by both of them in my class. For example, one of Dennis Hartmann’s best songs is “Surface Pressure.”

I’m the only one who sings in class in our department, but I have gone in to several other profs’ classes to play songs though. I’ve told my colleagues that I’m always available for guest singing appearances in their lecture.

SAS&M: As mentioned by an audience member at your recent Sandbox presentation, a few researchers have sonified their data, i.e., converted it into music, either to help them detect patterns in the data, or to highlight such patterns for others. Your own research includes a lot of mathematical modeling of circulatory processes. Can you imagine sonifying your own data?

DF: I think sonification is really cool, but I can’t imagine doing it myself any time soon. My music is mostly acoustic instruments and singing, so I don’t have much experience with digital music or construction of sounds.

SAS&M: Finally, I believe that you are working on some sort of climate change video game. What can you tell us about that? Will it include a Bowie-esque theme song?

DF: Our video game project is still in the early planning stages, so there’s not much info to give just yet. I do hope to write some music for it eventually though!

For years, I’ve been intending to interview Steve Rush, a.k.a. funky49. He’s an anomaly among anomalies: a science music guy who’s not a scientist, science teacher, or full-time musician. Plus he’s super-friendly on Twitter. After one of his recent re-tweets of my attempts at humor, I resolved to finally give him the interview that he deserves — or an interview of some sort, at least. Read on to find out how he pays the bills, what his next album is going to be like, where the handle funky49 came from, and more.

[Steve Rush in action at the 2012 Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC.]

SAS&M: When I interviewed Kate McAlpine (creator of the “Large Hadron Rap”), she named you as one of her favorite science rappers. She said, “I like Steve Rush for pure enthusiasm. He’s not a scientist or science communicator by training – he just thinks science rocks and wants to share it.” So … you’re not a scientist. What are you? A professional musician? Some corporate guy with good hair and a good mixing board?

SR: I AM SO HONORED! I’m just this guy, you know? My day job is an IT guy. I have 2 credit hours of music theory and a few electronic music classes under my belt. It’s mostly experimenting with software at home and learning things on my own. For me, music started in the early 90s with using MOD trackers on the PC. As music making software became more dangerous, so have I. I have learned a LOT of music production from my friend, John Sexton aka @redvoid. Over time I have acquired the gear to do basic home recording. I should read more manuals and watch more tutorials. By the way, ladies have found my hair soft and nice to touch.

SAS&M: Most people singing or rapping about science are science teachers, but you are not. What prompts you to create a science song — some concept that you just find interesting? Or is most of your work done on a contract basis? And who is your main target audience, if not students per se?

SR: Good question. I want to make things that sound good to me and are smart. I recently dropped a song called “Go for Launch.” It was inspired by a trip to Space Camp. For a few days, the nice folks at Space Camp USA had me and some other folks on Twitter come by, experience Space Camp, and tweet about it. (I proudly served as COMMANDER of the ENTERPRISE and successfully brought my crew home.) Some of us had our picture taken at the rocket garden at the nearby Marshall Space Flight Center. In that picture we were posed with our hands in the air like we were rockets. That picture inspired the song.

I honestly do not have a target audience. I would have to guess my audience are fans of both hip-hop and science. Creation comes from inspiration. I wanted to write a sexy song and mention sexual things so I made “Gene Swap.” I heard the local science museum, Tampa’s MOSI, wanted more social media reach so I made an EP tribute album for them. Everything I do as been incredibly selfish, except for the song for Fermilab. That was the one request I have taken on. The St. Petersburg Science Festival is having me back for the third year in a row. I want to come up with new songs to do live for them. The St. Pete Science Festival is really awesome! It is geared for kids but is a true treat no matter your age.

SAS&M: What is the story behind your rapper name, funky49? And how should people address you? Should we say, “Pleased to meet you, funky49?” Or can we shorten that to “funky” or “funk” or “f”?

SR: People should address me as Steve. I have been called funk, funky, and funky49. They are acceptable ways to address me. :) Good eye on you for noticing the lower case f. The story: While working at the IT call center for a large accounting firm, my friend assigned the password ‘funky49’ to an employee. This was hilarious because 1) it was policy for the employees to come up with their own passwords, not us; 2) this employee was failing to come up with a password that had the right number of letters and special characters; 3) this was the first time I heard my chill friend was exasperated. I took the name ‘funky49’ and recorded a cassette tape with all of the mini musical projects, ideas I had been playing with. I gave him the tape after titling it the ‘funky49 mix tape.’ A smoothie was spilled on it and it has been lost since.

SAS&M: It appears that you have a new album, “Area 49,” coming out in October. What non-classified information can you share about that?

SR: I’m excited to collaborate with Coma Niddy. I think our song is going to be about the sun. I want it to sound really awesome live, just in case we share the same stage one day. He’s really terrific, please check out Mike aka Coma Niddy! So far, a lot of the songs are going to be NASA/space-inspired. I have this idea where I fly across the country with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in his personal T-38 visiting NASA facilities and rapping about them. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have his own personal T-38, which is a shame but good for NASA budgetary purposes. I also plan to rap about brain chemistry because dopamine/serotonin means so much to our lives. I have a song about the different Apollo missions. I LOVE SPACE. I LOVE SPACE. I LOVE SPACE.

SAS&M: If you could work with any musician or band on a science-themed album, who would you work with and why?

SR: This is going to be very polarizing. I would work with Kanye West.

First, because I never heard back from his PR people when I invited him to Chicagoland’s Fermilab where I shot the video for Particle Business. Second, he is fellow a rapper/producer and I greatly appreciate that. Being able to blast a rap and a track is not common. He’s reinvented his sound multiple times in excellent ways so I figure I would learn a lot from him. If I could harness some of his enthusiasm he has for fashion and threesomes into science… I know we would edutain a lot of people. I don’t care about his non-musical shenanigans, just his creative output (just like John Lennon).